THE man accused of killing Soham girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman is unlikely to deny that they died while they were alone with him in his house, an Old Bailey jury was told yesterday.

Ian Huntley is also expected to admit he took the 10-year- old girls' bodies to the spot near Lakenheath, Suffolk where they were found 13 days later, said Richard Latham QC, prosecuting.

He described school caretaker Huntley as "calculating and manipulative" and suggested he had "tried to get away with murder".

The barrister's account of Huntley's admissions came as he opened the prosecution's case on the first day of Huntley's trial.

Huntley denies murdering the girls, who disappeared in their home village in Cambridgeshire on the evening of Sunday, August 4, last year.

Mr Latham said the prosecution could not call anyone who could tell the jury "what happened in that house. There is only one person alive who was there on that evening. The focus of the trial is likely to turn on whether we can establish that their deaths while he was there with them in the house amounted to murder.

"How and why the deaths happened will be for you to consider and on the answers to those two questions will rest your verdicts in this case.

"We understand from those representing Huntley it is unlikely to be disputed by Huntley that the girls went into his home shortly after 6.30pm that evening, that Huntley was the only other person there at the time and that they died within a short time of going inside his home."

Mr Latham understood it was also unlikely to be disputed that "it was Huntley who took their bodies to the place where they were found.

"Some time ago, when the two counts of murder on this indictment were put to him, he pleaded not guilty.

"To this day he maintains that stance, not guilty."

But Mr Latham told the jury, "We will invite you to find that he is guilty of murder.

"We assert that after the deaths Huntley knew what he was doing.

"He could remember, he could understand, he was a man who - insofar as anyone who has killed two 10-year-old girls can be described as rational - was acting rationally.

"There is evidence of a calculating and manipulative individual who knew precisely what he was up to.

"He was trying to get away with murder."

He said Huntley does not have to prove anything, but any account of what happened in the house would obviously be very important.

"That is why you will need to examine his actions and what he said in the hours and days after the deaths."

Mr Latham has alleged that Holly and Jessica were murdered when they "fell into the hands" of Huntley, shortly after they left Holly's home.

He then hid their bodies in the hope that they would never be found, the seven women five men jury was told. "In this objective he was very nearly successful."

Mr Latham said the girls were murdered by Huntley "for some reason known only to him" shortly after they left Holly's home in Soham.

Huntley, 29, denies the double child murder but has pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Outlining the girls' final movements, Mr Latham told the jury, "At 6.15 in the evening of Sunday August 4 of last year two girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, left Holly's home and walked out on to the streets of the small Cambridgeshire town of Soham.

"They didn't tell anyone they were going out. No doubt they felt secure and confident in an area where they felt familiar.

"Shortly after 6.30pm, in a matter of about quarter of an hour of leaving home, they simply vanished.

"Just under a fortnight later, in the early hours of Saturday August 17, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr, who lived together at 5 College Close, were arrested on suspicion of the murder of the two girls."

Mr Latham alleged Huntley was seen 10 minutes before the girls left a sports centre in Soham around 6.30pm when they were heading in the direction of his home.

He was not seen by anyone again until 10.30pm that night.

Mr Latham said, "It follows, members of the jury, Huntley's whereabouts for a period of about four hours - 6.15 to 10.30 - are unknown.

"The journey time from Soham to the place where the bodies were found takes approximately 30 to 40 minutes in a motor car.

"To drive there and back and leave the bodies, no more than a maximum of an hour and a half - and for four hours his whereabouts are unknown."

Mr Latham asked the jury to consider two questions about Huntley.

He said, "One - is this a man who is thinking sensibly, a man who is in control of himself?

"Two - is this a man who is capable of telling convincing lies?"

Mr Latham also alleged that Huntley's ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr helped Huntley "devise a dishonest account of events in order to distance himself from what he had done".

Carr, 26, a former classroom assistant at the girls' primary school in Soham, denies one charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and two of assisting an offender.

The families of both girls were in court yesterday, sitting just a few feet behind the dock.